New London

New London, Conn.
November 21, 1918

My dear Mother and Father,

At last I'm in the old town of New London -- and you never saw a more beautiful or quaint place. All the buildings and houses are old and trees are everywhere. The town is laid out in every direction -- no two streets run the same way. We haven't been out to the station yet, but if it's at all a good one, right here is where I want to stay. The population is just 25,000 and I'll bet we have a wonderful time.

We came up from New York by boat last night -- left Pelham Bay about 2:30 and went down to the dock in a big Navy truck. There were 25 of us, and as we went down Broadway we yelled and sang like a bunch of football players gone nuts -- but the people yelled right back so we couldn't get in bad. We have a fine stateroom (Bender and I), and slept like logs. Bender is a fellow who has seen 18 months sea duty on a minesweeper and a fine fellow.

This morning after eating breakfast we walked for about an hour and saw a good part of town. It's hilly all over and when snow comes, I'm expecting to get in the sledding that I failed to get when "little" in Texas. I'll act like Virginia Neville did her first winter in the snow. There are monuments all over and the buildings are dated from 1830 on up. They say New London is one of the oldest places in New England. We are just 100 miles from Boston and 57 from Providence, so I'm surely going to go there if I have money enough, for that will let me see two more states. When I'm in Boston Julius and Chilton might be able to come up from Cambridge, and I would like nothing better.

Got a letter from Miss Jettie yesterday -- also Kathryn Thomas. Give Miss Jettie my love when you see her.

Will write again when I get to the station and tell you more.

Love to all of you,
Heywood

Address until I write differently:
Submarine Listeners School
New London, Connecticut, and I suppose you already know my name.

(Postmarked New London, Conn., November 21, 1918)